Archive for Gramophone Magazine
Vote for Pittsburgh Symphony for Gramophone Orchestra of the Year!
Gramophone Magazine has announced its 10 finalists for the 2022 Orchestra of the Year — the only one of its prestigious awards decided by the public — and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has made the list! “Nomination comes as a result of each ensemble impressing Gramophone’s editors and reviewers through its work on record, and all ten have released magnificent and often thought-provoking new albums over the past 12 months.” Vote now through Monday, September 7!…
Gramophone Reviews Pittsburgh Symphony’s Brahms & MacMillan
The November issue of Gramophone features a great review for the Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s Brahms: Symphony No. 4 & MacMillan: Larghetto for Orchestra: “This latest release presents subtly incendiary Brahms alongside an utterance of radically different stripe. … The main work transmits an impression of interpretative renewal. Though capable of cushioned ‘European’ warmth, the Pittsburgh Symphony has a cleaner, brighter edge than traditionally associated with big-band Brahms.… As ever articulation is precisely honed,…
Gramophone Magazine Reviews Utah Symphony’s Prokofiev
Gramophone Magazine’s Mark Pullinger reviews Thierry Fischer and the Utah Symphony’s Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky – Lieutenant Kijé Suite in their February 2020 issue: “Thierry Fischer pairs two contrasting Prokofiev film scores in this Utah Symphony release: the gritty, rarely heard cantata Alexander Nevsky and the quirky, satirical Lieutenant Kijé. The latter is… guaranteed to raise a smile. … Nevsky is given a sober reading here, the University of Utah A Cappella Choir and University of…
Gramophone Magazine Reviews Kansas City’s Holst: The Planets
Gramophone Magazine started the New Year with a January 2020 review for the Kansas City Symphony and Michael Stern’s Holst: The Planets; The Perfect Fool in the Sounds of America section: “The Kansas City Symphony seize the day, and night, on their new recording under music director Michael Stern. Some performances of The Planets focus more on the score’s colourful surfaces than on its dramatic mysteries and jubilance but Stern’s concept pays close attention to every alluring…
Gramophone Reviews the Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s Beethoven and Strauss
Gramophone Magazine reviews the Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s GRAMMY-nominated recording of Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 and Strauss: Horn Concerto No. 1 in the January 2019 issue: “There’s nothing even remotely studied about Honeck’s performance…He pays unusual attention to detail, yes – note straight away the gently blossoming (and unmarked) crescendo on the ascending E flat major triad of the opening theme – but this never inhibits the music’s momentum or trajectory. The first movement…
Gramophone Magazine Reviews Teach Me Thy Statutes
Gramophone Magazine Reviews the PaTRAM Institute’s new Teach Me Thy Statutes recording in their 2018 Gramophone Awards Issue: “A joint Russian-American choir, drawn from three different ensembles, was assembled for this recording under the auspices of the North American-based PaTRAM Institute. It comprises 21 tenors, nine baritones, seven basses and five profundos…[which] gives it all a fervent feel which certainly suits the spiritual intensity of Chesnokov’s writing. Coupled with Vladimir Gorbik’s well-paced direction capturing the…
Gramophone Reviews the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Shostakovich and Barber Recording
Gramophone Magazine has a new review for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck’s Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5; Barber Adagio for Strings recording in the February 2018 issue: “Manfred Honeck seems intent on wringing every last drop of drama from the symphony in this live recording. He seizes upon the first movement’s stark juxtapositions. Rhythms in the jagged opening phrases are razor-sharp and urgently dispatched … then the pace eases as the mood becomes more…
Gramophone Reviews Utah Symphony Mahler 8
Thierry Fischer, the Utah Symphony, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir‘s Mahler: Symphony No. 8 recording gets a rave review in Gramophone Magazine: “The Utah Symphony were the first American orchestra to record a complete Mahler cycle. Under Thierry Fischer, Utah’s music director since 2009, they have mounted another Mahler cycle in celebration of the orchestra’s 75th anniversary.…And a lovely thing it is. Thierry Fischer is clearly a Mahlerian to contend with, full of ideas and…
Strauss Opera Suites a Showcase for Pittsburgh Symphony
Gramophone Magazine features the new Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck Strauss: Elektra/Rosenkavaalier recording in the January 2017 issue: The recording packs a mighty punch from the initial Agamemnon motif, scything brass braying Elektra’s revenge theme. There is percussive glitter for Klytemnestra, whip cracks marking the arrival of her entourage. The full barbarism of Strauss’s score makes a searing impact, Orest’s murder of Klytemnestra especially brutal, yet there are moments of great tenderness too. Reference…
New Pittsburgh Symphony Recording in Gramophone
Gramophone Magazine’s “High Fidelity” section used the new Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck Strauss: Elektra & Der Rosenkavalier as one of their December Test Discs! “This recording of Manfred Honeck’s suite from Strauss’s Elektra is a true demonstration-quality set, well up to the Reference label’s usual standards.”
Gramophone Reviews San Francisco Ballet Moszkowski
Gramophone Magazine reviews San Francisco Ballet Orchestra’s Moszkowski: From Foreign Lands recording in the November 2016 issue: “Why concert promoters and record labels have such trouble with Moszkowski I’ll never know, especially his once-celebrated orchestral music. For instance, not a single item from this disc ever featured in the BBC’s wide-ranging, inclusive Proms, with the exception of the work that made Moszkowski’s fortune, the five Spanish Dances, Op. 2…it is a pleasure…to have the repertoire…
Utah Symphony’s Dawn to Dust in July issue of Gramophone Magazine
Kate Molleson reviews the Utah Symphony’s Dawn to Dust recording in the July issue of Gramophone Magazine: “This disc contains premiere recordings of the three works commissioned by the Utah Symphony to celebrate its 75th birthday, and as a bright and upbeat showcase for the orchestra it does its job nicely.…First comes the five-movement EOS (the goddess of the dawn) by Augusta Read Thomas, who knows what she wants from an orchestra…This is neat, well-crafted…
Wine Dark Sea in Gramophone!
Gramophone Magazine’s June 2016 issue features a new review for Jerry Junkin and the University of Texas Wind Ensemble’s Wine Dark Sea recording! “The repertoire for wind ensemble is vast and colourful. On their dynamic new release, The University of Texas Wind Ensemble and conductor Jerry Junkin take up four recent, worthy examples. Along with superbly balanced and vibrant playing, the performances confirm that American composers have no shortage of imagination when writing for wind,…
Two Gramophone Recordings of the Year!
Gramophone Magazine has released their 2015 Recordings of the Year in a special free digital issue and includes two Reference Recordings releases! Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3, “Organ” Jan Kraybill, organ; Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern “…the crucial test is not so much the volume of the organ but the way in which the orchestral context of the symphony as a whole is established. Here Michael Stern impressively injects impetus into the first section’s sinewy fabric,…
Pittsburgh Symphony Beethoven a Gramophone Editor’s Choice
Gramophone Magazine names Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s new Beethoven: Symphony Nos. 5 & 7 a December Editor’s Choice! “The Pittsburgh playing marries epic power with a revealing translucency of texture, something which the aptly named Soundmirror team catches in sound the provides generous levels of reverberation with crystal-clear detailing. Honeck has a wonderful ear for detail, be it quietly thematic or utterly bizarre, as in the piccolo’s crackerjack contributions to the finale of the…